Via Arsenal Instagram

No gross story to start the day today my friends. Just straight into the good stuff.

OGS made a meal of another lucky win at home to West Ham. The wheels really are starting to come off. The babyfaced assassin looks like he’s having a rough time with stress, it’s taking a toll on his face and body by the looks of things. It seems that when that Mourinho hangover wore off, the players just weren’t that interested in being a team.

That said, I couldn’t be happier that he’s landed a new deal. Poch at Old Trafford would be a very different story imo. I don’t want to witness how fiery the sauce could be. Just keep topping up that problem with more ’92 thinking.

Spurs are back to their best, they downed Huddersfield with ease, no doubt there really. Only thing we can hope for moving forward is more tiring games. They have to deal with City twice away this week… that should do the trick.

There’s a HUGE game today as Sarri heads on up to Liverpool to hopefully take a thrashing at the hands of Klopp… but as we’ve seen before, Liverpool are more than capable of a choke against Chelsea when chasing a title. So who knows what’s going to happen there. I thought this was a good read on the Chelsea manager.

Sarriball, an ironical term coined by someone in another country, has been used to beat him, a sign of – heaven forfend! – intellectual pretension. Here he comes now, papers flapping, textbook under one arm. English anti-intellectualism, the English insularity that still sees it as a form of national disgrace to take lessons or ask favours abroad: Sarri is an embodiment of so many things that have traditionally enraged English football’s deep sensibilities.

Remember that brief period where a shared hatred of Jorginho seemed to unite the nation? What outrage there was at the sight of a small, possession-based midfielder trying to integrate his style into English football.

Fast forward a couple of months and Jorginho and N’Golo Kanté have both been key players in the current run. Jorginho starts for Italy. He has played in six wins in a row for club and country, his team dominating possession in every one. Maybe just give it a while next time.

Let’s see how it looks after today.

As for Arsenal… well, we’re not playing today. I must have been delirious or just my normal error-prone self when posturing that the fixture was today. That means one more day to mentally prepare for an absolute hell fest away at a reasonably good team our players should be dealing with.

Once again, the big challenge that’ll be asked of Emery is this… where does he see his top 4 fortune?

The Premier League?

The Europa DREAM?

Or will he just shoot for glory in both?

This is where rotation is tough. He knows we’re shite away from him, and likely understands that this isn’t helped by starting Mustafi and Big Mo. However, if he goes for glory (against Watford, big LOL) and then has tired players for Thursday’s test, he could end of shooting himself in both of his size 14 feet (true). No one needs that.

I’d imagine he’s looking at a 2-0 lead and fancying himself for the Europa. A 2 goal lead against Napoli shouldn’t be causing concern. Valencia are a 6th placed team we should have little problem with. Then it’s Benfica or Chelsea in the final. Both teams that offer up tough test, but in a 90minute battle, I’d fancy Emery’s experience to do the job.

… but, lose against Watford and the fans will be pissed off. Doubt might creep into players heading out on Thursday. Legs become a little heavier. No one wants to be tired heading into a nasty atmosphere in Italy.

Basically, it’s a tough one. I am very worried that Mustafi has to play on Monday. That puts us on the back foot right away. It’s hard not to see reckless behavior on the pitch as anything outside nightmarish. However, we have some very good players who should be able to do a job on them. It’s all about focus and motivation. Interesting to read that the 7 games where Ozil, Auba, Laca and Ramsey have started… we’ve won. Our best player delivering results is hardly a revelation, but you have to know when to deploy them.

A very big Monday ahead… let’s see how Emery gambles.